Systematic Composition, Life Forms and Chorology of Parklands of Commune of Mayahi, Niger West Africa

Abstract

Botanical assessment plays an important role in managing and conserving phytodiversity. This study tried to determine the systematic composition, life forms, and chorology of parklands in the commune of Mayahi in Niger. We used quadrat method based on systematic sampling approach to inventory vegetation within the parklands in September 2013. The floristical analysis revealed that 230 species and 139 genera distributed in 48 families were recorded. This showed that the parklands are floristically diverse in biodiversity. But the most represented are Poaceae (16.02%) followed by Fabaceae (12.12%), Caesalpiniaceae (6.06%) and Mimosaceae (5. 63%). This showed that the legume species are numerically the important species of the parklands of the commune of Mayahi. The Shannon Weaver Diversity Index (H’) calculated based on 56 plots was 2.82 bits. Further, the analysis of life forms revealed that therophyte (57.82%) and phanerophyte (29%) are the dominant life forms in the parklands of the commune of Mayahi. Therefore, the phytoclimate of the commune of Mayahi is therophanerophytic. Furthermore, the dominance of therophyte explains the adjustment of the flora to water balance of the area. Added to that, the predominance of the phanerophyte is an indicator of the presence woody species and the good level of management of the parklands by the farmers. Moreover, the chorological analysis showed that there were predominance Sudano-Zambezians species (SZ), 53.70% and Guineo-Congolese-Sudano-Zambezians (GC-SZ) 31.02% in the flora of the parklands. The present study recommends further research that touches the impact of anthropogenic activities on the dynamics of the parklands in the commune of Mayahi.